Web Hosting (or Server Rental) is the life support of the Internet. All the websites on Internet need a Host Machine that can serve web-pages to the client machines (Your Computer). Whether you are a business person, artist, developer or a hobbyist, You really need a website where can you show your potential and grow. That’s where Web-Hosting comes in.
If you perform a quick search on your web-browser, you will be inundated with web-hosting advertisements and search listings, promising to give you a website hosting for as low as $1 per month. It becomes confusing as every provider claims to be the best in the business. That’s a long debate that requires intensive audit and benchmarks which I will not discuss here. I will however highlight common mistakes aspiring web developers make when choosing a web-hosting provider.
6 Common Mistakes People Make When Buying Web Hosting in 2023
1. Getting Wrong Type of Web-Hosting
Every web professional has made this mistake once in their career. There are different types of web-hosting, most popular ones are
- Shared Hosting – Limited software and resources, oversold. Good for static small-business websites, personal blogs with few images and plugins.
- VPS Hosting – Software freedom, multiple tenants, upgrade as you go. Can host e-commerce (Magento, WooCommerce) websites, game servers and manage decent load of concurrent users.
- Dedicated Hosting – Full machine control, single tenant. Ability to install any application and max out your usage without anyone complaining about it.
2. Not checking Renewal Price
We all are preoccupied and focused on building our business/personal websites. Most of us, look at the initial price offered by web-hosting providers and we get sucked into it.
We don’t even look at the renewal cost of service. I myself have done this stupid mistake many times. So if you are going to get a webhosting, shared/vps/dedicated or whatever. Make sure you find out the Renewal cost before the next billing cycle (invoice).
3. Not Reading Terms and Conditions / FUP
Contract literature such as “Terms and Conditions” and “Fair Usage Policy (FUP)” are often overlooked by beginners who dip their toes in the Web development.
The wall of text on these agreements don’t look scary at first but they make you legally bound to the service. So next time you click “I agree” be careful to read the important points of such agreement. If that’s not possible look for the positive and negative reviews of Web Hosting company you are opting for.
4. Not checking Reviews and Benchmarks
It is must before buying anything, not just web hosting. It is always beneficial to seek various opinions and check reviews from the people before buying a product.
Be it car, house, or a USB charging cable. In case of web-hosting, if you don’t want to spend your precious time troubleshooting or making support tickets because of downtime/slowdown of server. Better read reviews before falling in to the trap.
5. Hidden Costs, Control Panel Pricings
There are usually no hidden costs, but you can’t take any provider for granted. Some hosting companies are like Apple, they like to squeeze every bit of cash from you under the blanket of SLA charges, Automatic backups and additional IPs.
I know these service pricings are justified. But make sure you don’t choose or click the check button before you rent a web hosting.
6. Checking Provider Reputation
Web hosting which falls under IT services is a highly competitive business. Usually you would want to go with a provider who has been in the game for a long time (at least 4-5 years), the reason is newer providers offer lucrative/cheaper offers at first to attract clients but later it becomes unsustainable for them to maintain rising costs due to inflation and energy prices.
There are many ways to check how long the hosting provider has been in the game.
- Check their domain registration date (WHOIS data)
- Verify their WHMCS (billing panel) license, whether it’s genuine or pirated
- Acquire their Business registration, tax number or look into their physical presence by running their address on search engine.
